Today, like the previous four days, was spent at sea –
needlepointing, eating, exercising, attending lectures, etc. This week we will
be in New Zealand so I am looking forward to that. Not too much else to report.
The Internet connection on the boat continues to be ridiculously slow if not completely
useless.
We did have one exciting thing happen last week while
visiting the Cook Island of Rarotonga (part of New Zealand). We had to use
tenders to get onto the island and although the water did not seem particularly
rough there were large swells that made disembarking in the usual spot off
shore not possible. So, after several attempts at setting up the tender
platform (in the front, in the back, on one side, then the other) our Captain
decided that we would try the other side of the island. The new location didn’t
have much in the way of services or amenities. Also, the cut in the coral reef that
allows access to the dock was very narrow. Nevertheless, the ship’s crew was
able to set up the tender platform and so after a two-plus-hour delay the
tendering process finally began.
We had signed up for a tour – Pa’s Eco Adventure. Pa, the
tour guide, is, I would imagine, a bit of a local legend. Certainly he was a
character – no shirt, sarong, dread locks. First stop was his house where he
pointed out several plants/fruits and explained their medicinal value – sort of.
Mostly though we just stood around looking at one another and listening to him
ramble on about how he gets twenty-hour advance notice of any earthquakes on
the planet (that’s twenty hour notice not twenty four hour notice) and how he was
given the heart of King Kuhmehahmeha (sp? – you know, the one from Hawaii). I
told you he was a character. After a couple hours of wasted time, I had had
enough and when a minibus left to take anyone back to the dock Russell and I were
on it. At the dock, we discovered the exciting thing that happened (no I have
not forgotten that I promised you something exciting) – namely that one of the
tenders that was delivering passengers from the boat to the shore ran aground
on the coral reef. And that is where it was when we arrived. Stranded about two
hundred yards off shore. Loaded with passengers.
After several minutes, the Captain arrived on shore and with
a group of officers and some supplies they waded out to the boat. The area
between the boat and the beach was not too deep but it was filled with coral so
it wasn’t particularly easy to navigate. Eventually, they started to offload
passengers using a zodiac/raft-like thingy while others simply hopped in the
water and walked ashore with or without assistance. Fortunately for us another
tender came along after about forty-five minutes and we high-tailed it back to
the ship. Later in the day people had to wait on shore for as much as two
hours.
We received varying reports on how the passengers on board
the stranded boat fared. Some people said that everyone took it in stride while
another person we talked to (who was clearly none too happy with her experience)
said that some people were panicking. We did hear a funny story about a
passenger who was worrying about the boat sinking.
That’s when some wag observed wryly that “we are already on
the bottom!”
Eventually the boat was pulled off the reef by a small
tugboat and it returned to the boat still with some passengers aboard and
several holes in its bottom and so much water on board that it took a good
twenty plus minutes to drain. Awfully glad we were not on that ill-fated boat.
That’s one story that I will gladly do without.
The only other exciting thing to happen in the past several
days was our crossing of the International Date Line. Never have I done that
before and so I didn’t really know how it works. Well, allow me to explain. You
cross the Date Line from east to west and you advance your calendar by one day.
Clock stays the same, just the date changes. You cross the Date Line from west
to east you turn your calendar back by one day. Again, clock stays the same
only the date changes. In our case we were left to wonder where did that day
(January 28th) go? Well, we missed it! Simple as that. Of course, in
our case we will get that day (or most of it) but in one-hour increments as we
pass from time zone to time zone. So, we used to be several hours behind
American time but now we are many hours ahead of you all. It’s very confusing
but it seems to be working – at least the sun sets now at seven thirty-ish
(p.m.) and rises at six a.m. so that’s as it should be. I am sure that comes as
a great relief to you as it does to us.
I am hoping to have cellular service in New Zealand and so
will be able to update the blog with photos from Tahiti, Moorea and the Cook
Island of Rarotonga. I appreciate your patience and I am hoping that we won’t
have this issue again for at least awhile because we will be relatively close
to land with no long stretches “at sea”.
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